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re-collapse of subfolder after auto uncollapse by dragging into subsubfolder

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by avdn

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I have a long list of subfolders with subsubfolder etc on my IMAP server that I access with Thunderbird. Only one or two toplevel subfolder are normally expanded, sometimes one subsubfolder as well, if I would expand all the list would be too long (even for the 1920 pixel high portrait screen) If I drag an email over a collapsed subfolder X to drop it in a subsubfolder, the subfolder X doesn't revert to its required collapsed state. I have to click after the drag to do this (possible multiple times if the email was dropped in a subsubsubfolder). How can I make thunderbird automatically restore the carefully selected expand/collapse state of the subfolder tree? Or is there an option to save the "collapsedness" of the subfolders and a shortcut to restore that state?

(I almost never want want all closed, or all opened, that is not a useful state)

I have a long list of subfolders with subsubfolder etc on my IMAP server that I access with Thunderbird. Only one or two toplevel subfolder are normally expanded, sometimes one subsubfolder as well, if I would expand all the list would be too long (even for the 1920 pixel high portrait screen) If I drag an email over a collapsed subfolder X to drop it in a subsubfolder, the subfolder X doesn't revert to its required collapsed state. I have to click after the drag to do this (possible multiple times if the email was dropped in a subsubsubfolder). How can I make thunderbird automatically restore the carefully selected expand/collapse state of the subfolder tree? Or is there an option to save the "collapsedness" of the subfolders and a shortcut to restore that state? (I almost never want want all closed, or all opened, that is not a useful state)

All Replies (2)

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I've not located any addon as yet.

The drag and drop method is one way of moving emails, but there are other options so you don't need to open and collapse folders.

If you have already moved one email to a folder called X, then you can move other emails to same folder using : right click and select 'Move to X folder again'

or if moving to another folder: Right click on email and select 'Move to' > 'account name > folder

You can also select several emails in list and use the same method as above to move several emails in one go.

The following information is a really useful tool for anyone with a lot of folders. If you find you use certain folders on a regular basis and most others not as often or rarely, you can create a 'favourite' view. The advantage of this means you can have a view that is less clutterred with fewer folders, so not collapsing is not an issue. A Favourite subfolder will be shown as a sub folder to the main folder in Favourite view, but can remain collapsed in the All folder view.

To mark a folder as 'Favourite',: right click on folder and select 'Favourite'

To view only favourite folders: View > Folders > Favourite or Menu icon > Folders > Favourite

To get back to seeing all your folder tree: View > Folders > All or Menu icon > Folders >All

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Hi Toad,

thanks for your answer, but your suggestions don't solve the issue,

I should have pointed out that this especially happens during end-of-the-day/week cleanup of my inbox. I already gather all messages that belong together based on a search and then move them in one go, that makes the "move to X Folder again" suggestion not applicatble (by the time I would want to move there again, it is out the history stack).

The favourite view I have just tried, but it is to restrictive. When working on a specific subject, I might just want to open a subfolder with subsubfolders and that cannot be easily done using the favourite on and off selection.

Maybe I should just write a plug in myself. I never looked at how difficult this is.

Modified by avdn